I know that Chapter 7 was too short, but now that I'm back, we're gonna find out if Tails is okay or not. Will he be fine? And if not, will he survive?

Chapter 8.

Unexpected.

Suddenly, the team heard a noise in the shadows. And in the next moment, a laser struck Cody in the arm. Immediately, the team rallied themselves in a battle position, and soon, more lasers started firing in every direction. Getting hit again in the arm, Cody yelled and pulled out a blaster and started firing it in the direction of the lasers. The team swiftly dodged the lasers. Sonic and Amy almost got hit by quite a few of them, but with quick reflexes, the two hedgehogs swiftly dodged every last one of them. A laser about glazed the top of Knuckles' head, but the echidna ducked just in time, the laser hitting the cave wall instead. Tails almost got shot by two lasers, the kit dodged one, but on the second attempt, he wasn't so lucky, the kit felt the laser burn his fur and skin as it hit his chest. Grunting, Tails put his hand to where he got shot and swayed, feeling weak, the fox cub closed his eyes as he collapsed onto the ground, slowly fading into unconsciousness.

"Tails!" Sonic, Knuckles, Amy and Sticks yelled.

Soon, everyone else joined Sonic, Knuckles, Amy and Sticks, surrounding the injured unconscious fox cub.

"MILES! NOOOO!" Fara cried.

Everyone was gathered around Tails after seeing him get shot down by a laser, the kit was currently unconscious, his body looked lifeless and limp. Chad kneeled low and removed the young fox's hand off of his chest, only to reveal a blackened spot where he had been shot, indicating that his chest had been hit and was singed. The wound deeply concerned the others, upon seeing Tails' condition, Sonic and Amy were both worried about his survival, and what was most concerning was the fact that the kit had not regained consciousness. Fara had been weeping silently, tears streaming down her face.

'No no no no,' Fara thought, 'he's gotta make it, please be okay Tails.'

Chad then put his head down on the kit's chest and waited for a heartbeat, fortunately, he heard one.

"Tails, you're okay little guy?" Chad asked, very concerned about the fox cub not responding.

After about a long suspenseful minute, they heard Tails groan in pain as he slowly regained consciousness.

"Tails?" Sonic asked.

The kit barely cracked an eye open. "Are you guys okay?"

The rest looked at him like they couldn't believe that he had asked them that. Tails was asking them if they were okay.

"What do you mean 'are you okay'?" Fara said, tears trickling down her face. "We should be asking you that!"

Tails wheezed, his voice crackled as he coughed. Then in the next moment, the young fox tried to get up, then he felt a sharp pain shoot up his chest. The wound was beginning to sting.

He heard Sonic comfort him. "Just stay still, don't move, you're hurt badly."

The kit wheezed again, his chest throbbing in pain. He coughed a couple times. Tails barely lifted his head off the ground and placed a hand over his chest wound. Then he looked at his friends.

Tails' voice crackled. "We gotta...get to... that…bio…"

The fox cub never finished his sentence. He closed his eyes and let his head fall back down onto the ground, but before that happened, Chad placed his hands underneath Tails' head, catching it, Chad then picked up the kit the rest of the way and carried him back to the entrance of the cave, the rest following him.

Several hours later…

Sonic, Amy, Fara and Chad found themselves in a makeshift room, which was, ironically, a medium-sized portion of the cave. The room was just big enough for five people to fit in there, despite a bed being in it, of which, on the bed was none other than Tails. The kit had been shot down earlier, while in the midst of a ambush. What was awkward was that after the kit was nearly killed, the unknown attackers left, or retreated back to wherever they came from. Currently, the young fox was resting in the bed, he had only woke up two times, but he awakened only to drink a small cup of hot soup broth both times. Sonic, Fara and Chad had never left his side, earlier, Chad had brought Tails back to the portion of the cave where Kari, now his mother-in-law, lived in, everyone was afraid that Tails had been killed when he was hit earlier by the laser, Chad had gently laid Tails down on the bed when they came back. Ever since then, the silver-colored fox had been dabbing Tails' forehead with a cold, damp washcloth, the kit had a fever, but it wasn't bad enough for the rest to be worried even further about him. Fara gently rubbed Tails' hand with her thumb, Sonic and Amy were currently looking at their young friend every now and then. Chad had stopped dabbing the young fox's forehead with the washcloth and placed it back on his forehead. Fara gently laid her head down on the pillow, next to Tails' head and placed a hand on his head, and began rubbing it gently. She could hear the kit's breathing.

"Tails," Fara whispered softly, "please get better soon, I love you."

After a minute, Tails began to stir softly, and as he did so, he coughed a couple of times, finally, barely opening his eyes, the young fox looked around the room in silence. The first thing he saw was that Sonic, Amy, Fara and Chad were in the room, and the second thing he noticed was that he felt a bandage wrapped up around his chest, which still throbbed in pain. He placed his hand over his chest and tried to feel around for his tool belt, soon he found out that Chad had taken it off of him. Tails then tried to sit up, but before he could, he was stopped by gentle hands.

"Tails, it's okay." Fara said softly.

The kit closed his eyes and laid his head back down on the pillow, it felt comfortable, and so did the blanket that was covering him. He tried to sit up again, but to no avail.

"Tails, just stay still," Sonic and Amy said in unison.

"Just stay still, you're hurt." Chad said.

"What happened?" Tails whispered softly.

"You were shot tonight." Fara replied before placing a gentle hand on the kit's head.

Tails opened his eyes again and looked straight at her. Then he looked towards the ceiling for a moment, afterwards, he closed his eyes and took a hold of Fara's hand. Tails never felt so weak in his life before, and now, here he was, laying in bed, feeling so tired.

"Water…" Tails whispered softly.

Chad poured water into a glass and gave it to Fara, who ended up helping Tails take several sips of water down his throat. Afterwards, the kit barely opened his eyes and tried to sit up again, but he was stopped by Chad. The young fox struggled against him for a moment, but to no avail, the kit found himself laying his head back down on the pillow.

"What about the lab…?" Tails asked. "We're still going... right?"

"What do you mean 'we're still going to the laboratory' ?" Amy asked.

"Well...we gotta stop the Regency from-" Tails was cut off.

"No, you mean, the rest of us are going to the laboratory and stop the Regency." Sonic said.

"What?" Tails whispered, puzzled.

"Tails, look at you, you're injured, you're gonna have to stay behind bud, sorry." Sonic said.

Now Tails was on the verge of tears when he heard Sonic's reply.

"But...I... wanna help...too." Tails choked.

"Tails," Fara said, "what Sonic is saying is that it would be best if you stayed here, you know, to get better."

Tails tried sitting up again, there was no way that he would not be able to make the rest of the team go on without him, he was going no matter what. He struggled to sit up on the bed again.

"Tails, stop, stop, stop hurting yourself even worse." Chad said.

"No…" Tails choked. "I'm coming with you all...no... matter... what…"

The kit finally sat up in the bed after a few moments of struggle and then tried to get off of the bed.

"Tails stop...stop...stop!" Fara shouted.

"No…!" Tails yelled, his voice hoarse. "I'm going...no matter... what!"

"Tails, stop! You're being stubborn!" Sonic said.

"No, you're the one who's being stubborn Sonic!" Tails yelled, his voice getting worse.

Tails finally got out of the bed, but after a few seconds, the kit immediately felt a wave of nausea sweep over him, the young fox felt weak and dizzy, swaying back and forth-soon collapsing to the ground. Chad immediately picked him up and gently laid him back down on the bed, soon covering the kit back up with the blanket. After a long moment, Tails reopened his eyes and found out that he was back on the bed. Immediately, the kit tried to get back up, but not before Chad held him to the bed.

"Tails, you're not going with us." Chad said.

Tails closed his eyes. "LET. ME. GO!" He shouted, struggling against Chad's tight grip, but after a few moments, he finally gave up. Laying his head back down on the pillow, Tails began crying softly.

"Fine...I see how it is…" Tails wailed.

"Tails, stop it." Fara whispered. "Listen, you're hurt badly, and that's why you're not coming with us, it's for your good, and now that I told you that, it's final."

Tails looked at them, tears trickling down his face.

Fara looked at him with a scowl on her face. "That's not gonna work, stop it."

"I don't think that's what he's crying about…" Amy said.

Sonic looked at the kit's face, was Tails crying about not being able to go on with them, or was the kid crying because of his wound? Fara gently removed the blanket off of the cub and began gently removing the bandage that wrapped around his chest, as soon as the bandage came off, Fara saw that something wasn't right, a red-colored rash surrounded his chest wound, she then placed a hand on it pressing down on it gently, Tails immediately winced in pain, Fara immediately took her hand off his chest. The fox cub whimpered softly.

"Miles," Fara said, using his real name, "how do you feel?"

"So cold….tired." Tails said, his voice barely a whisper.

Sonic and Amy glanced over at each other for a moment, they wondered why Fara would ask Tails how he felt after seeing the rash on his wound. Chad gently laid the bandage back on the kit's chest, then he gently covered the fox cub back up in the blanket. Fara placed an arm across Tails' forehead, she immediately yanked her arm off of him.

"What is it?" Sonic asked her.

Fara took the young fox's hand gently and rubbed it slowly. "He's…. he's sick... again. His fever's getting worse."

Tails barely opened his eyes and tightened his grip on Fara's hand, his chest slowly moving up and down, his eyes flickered as he slowly closed them, tiny white beads formed at the corner of his mouth.

So sorry if this took too long, I have to let you all know that this story has been put on hiatus, just for now, unfortunately, the hiatus is due to writer's block, so don't expect to see more chapters in the near future. If I have disappointed anyone, please let me know, and I'll see what I can do. Until then… God bless and have a good day.

JalcoFox.

(Oh and by the way… HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2021!)